John Stasko

Last updated
John Stasko
Born (1961-08-28) August 28, 1961 (age 62)
Miami, FL, US
Alma mater Brown University,
Bucknell University
Known for Algorithm animation,
software visualization,
information visualization,
visual analytics
Scientific career
Fields information visualization,
Visual analytics,
Human-computer interaction
Institutions Georgia Institute of Technology,
School of Interactive Computing,
GVU Center
Doctoral advisor Steve Reiss
Doctoral students W. Keith Edwards

John Thomas Stasko III (born August 28, 1961) is a Regents Professor [1] in the School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, where he joined the faculty in 1989. He also is one of the founding members of the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability (GVU) Center there. Stasko is best known for his extensive research in information visualization and visual analytics, including his earlier work in software visualization and algorithm animation.

Contents

Early life and education

John Stasko was born on August 28, 1961, in Miami, Florida. As a youngster, he lived in Pennsylvania (Lancaster and Reading) and south Florida (Miami, Boca Raton, and Deerfield Beach). Stasko attended Bucknell University and graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Mathematics in 1983. He went directly to graduate school and earned an Sc.M. and Ph.D. in Computer Science at Brown University in 1985 and 1989, respectively. His doctoral thesis, "TANGO: A Framework and System for Algorithm Animation," is a highly cited project in the area of Software Visualization. [2] Stasko joined the faculty of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech in 1989. He and his wife Christine have three children, John IV (Tommy), Mitchell, and Audrey. Stasko is an avid golfer and was winner of the 1996 Bobby Jones Memorial Tournament at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

Professional career

Upon joining the faculty at Georgia Tech, Stasko continued his research in algorithm animation and software visualization. He was the lead editor on the 1998 MIT Press book Software Visualization: Programming as a Multimedia Experience, [3] generally considered the lead reference for that field. Stasko also was one of the founding faculty for the GVU Center at Georgia Tech.

In the late 1990s, his research broadened into other areas of human-computer interaction and he developed a specific focus on information visualization. He formed the Information Interfaces Research Group which he still directs. More recently, Stasko has been a pioneering researcher in the new field of visual analytics, and was a contributor to the 2005 book, Illuminating the Path, that laid out a research agenda for this field. [4]

Stasko has published extensively in these fields, including over 125 conference papers (two Best Papers Awards), journal articles, and book chapters. His research in information visualization spans a spectrum from theoretical work on interaction, evaluation, and the conceptual foundations of visualization to more applied work creating new techniques and systems (such as TANGO, POLKA, SunBurst, InfoCanvas, Jigsaw) for people in a variety of domains. [5] He was Papers Co-Chair for the IEEE Information Visualization (InfoVis) Symposium in 2005 [6] and 2006 [7] and for the IEEE Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST) Symposium in 2009. [8] He is currently on Steering Committee of the IEEE InfoVis Conference, [9] the ACM Symposium on Software Visualization, [10] and is an At Large member of the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee.

In 2007 Stasko was appointed Associate Chair of the newly created School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. In addition to this role, he leads the Information Interfaces Research Group where he advises undergraduate, master's, and doctoral students. He traditionally teaches CS 1331, an introductory object-oriented programming course and CS 7450, Information Visualization, which originated in 1999 and is one of the first courses on this topic in the world.

Recognition

Stasko was named to the 2014 class of IEEE Fellows, "for contributions to information visualization, visual analytics and human-computer interaction."

He was inducted into the CHI Academy in 2016 for making significant, cumulative contributions to the development of the field of human–computer interaction.

Finally, Stasko was named to the 2022 class of ACM Fellows, "for contributions to the design, analysis, usage, and evaluation of software and information visualization". [11]

Selected bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scientific visualization</span> Interdisciplinary branch of science concerned with presenting scientific data visually

Scientific visualization is an interdisciplinary branch of science concerned with the visualization of scientific phenomena. It is also considered a subset of computer graphics, a branch of computer science. The purpose of scientific visualization is to graphically illustrate scientific data to enable scientists to understand, illustrate, and glean insight from their data. Research into how people read and misread various types of visualizations is helping to determine what types and features of visualizations are most understandable and effective in conveying information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visualization (graphics)</span> Set of techniques for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message

Visualization or visualisation is any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message. Visualization through visual imagery has been an effective way to communicate both abstract and concrete ideas since the dawn of humanity. from history include cave paintings, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek geometry, and Leonardo da Vinci's revolutionary methods of technical drawing for engineering and scientific purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treemapping</span> Visualisation method for hierchical data

In information visualization and computing, treemapping is a method for displaying hierarchical data using nested figures, usually rectangles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Shneiderman</span> American computer scientist

Ben Shneiderman is an American computer scientist, a Distinguished University Professor in the University of Maryland Department of Computer Science, which is part of the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the founding director (1983-2000) of the University of Maryland Human-Computer Interaction Lab. He conducted fundamental research in the field of human–computer interaction, developing new ideas, methods, and tools such as the direct manipulation interface, and his eight rules of design.

Bernhard Preim is a specialist in human–computer interface design as well as in visual computing for medicine. He is currently professor of visualization at University of Magdeburg, Germany.

Software visualization or software visualisation refers to the visualization of information of and related to software systems—either the architecture of its source code or metrics of their runtime behavior—and their development process by means of static, interactive or animated 2-D or 3-D visual representations of their structure, execution, behavior, and evolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GVU Center at Georgia Tech</span>

The GVU Center at Georgia Tech is an interdisciplinary research center located near Technology Square in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology. It was founded by James D. Foley, the Center's first director, on October 15, 1992. According to U.S. News & World Report, it is one of the best such facilities in the world. The GVU Center's current director is W. Keith Edwards, Georgia Tech alum and Professor in the School of Interactive Computing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Hanrahan</span> American computer graphics researcher

Patrick M. Hanrahan is an American computer graphics researcher, the Canon USA Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in the Computer Graphics Laboratory at Stanford University. His research focuses on rendering algorithms, graphics processing units, as well as scientific illustration and visualization. He has received numerous awards, including the 2019 Turing Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual analytics</span>

Visual analytics is an outgrowth of the fields of information visualization and scientific visualization that focuses on analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces.

George G. Robertson is an American information visualization expert and senior researcher, Visualization and Interaction (VIBE) Research Group, Microsoft Research. With Stuart K. Card, Jock D. Mackinlay and others he invented a number of Information Visualization techniques.

Jock D. Mackinlay is an American information visualization expert and Vice President of Research and Design at Tableau Software. With Stuart Card, George G. Robertson and others he invented a number of information visualization techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence J. Rosenblum</span> American mathematician

Lawrence Jay Rosenblum is an American mathematician, and Program Director for Graphics and Visualization at the National Science Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Daniel Fekete</span>

Jean-Daniel Fekete is a French computer scientist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irfan Essa</span>

Irfan Aziz Essa is a professor in the School of Interactive Computing of the College of Computing, and adjunct professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is an associate dean in Georgia Tech's College of Computing and the director of the new Interdisciplinary Research Center for Machine Learning at Georgia Tech (ML@GT).

Visual computing is a generic term for all computer science disciplines dealing with images and 3D models, such as computer graphics, image processing, visualization, computer vision, virtual and augmented reality and video processing. Visual computing also includes aspects of pattern recognition, human computer interaction, machine learning and digital libraries. The core challenges are the acquisition, processing, analysis and rendering of visual information. Application areas include industrial quality control, medical image processing and visualization, surveying, robotics, multimedia systems, virtual heritage, special effects in movies and television, and computer games.

The IEEE Visualization Conference (VIS) is an annual conference on scientific visualization, information visualization, and visual analytics administrated by the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Visualization and Graphics. As ranked by Google Scholar's h-index metric in 2016, VIS is the highest rated venue for visualization research and the second-highest rated conference for computer graphics over all. It has an 'A' rating from the Australian Ranking of ICT Conferences, an 'A' rating from the Brazilian ministry of education, and an 'A' rating from the China Computer Federation (CCF). The conference is highly selective with generally < 25% acceptance rates for all papers.

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the IEEE Computer Society. It covers subjects related to computer graphics and visualization techniques, systems, software, hardware, and user interface issues. TVCG has been considered the top journal in the field of visualization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kwan-Liu Ma</span> American computer scientist

Kwan-Liu Ma is an American computer scientist. He was born and grew up in Taipei, Taiwan and came to the United States pursuing advanced study in 1983. He is a distinguished professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis. His research interests include visualization, computer graphics, human computer interaction, and high-performance computing.

Niklas Elmqvist is a Swedish-American computer scientist. He is currently a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Aarhus University, and a Villium Investigator. He is the Director of the Center for Anytime Anywhere Analytics at Aarhus University, a research center on augmented reality and extended reality (AR/XR) for data visualization.

References

  1. "IC's John Stasko Recognized as Regents Professor By University System of Georgia". Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing News. 2018-08-22.
  2. "Citations of "Tango: A Framework and System for Algorithm Animation"". Google Scholar.
  3. "Software Visualization". MIT Press. Archived from the original on 2009-07-06.
  4. "NVAC Research Agenda". Archived from the original on 2008-09-29.
  5. "Information as Art: Software Prototype Uses Pictures to Represent Information People Want to Monitor". Georgia Institute of Technology. 2003-04-07.
  6. "InfoVis2005". Archived from the original on 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2010-02-08. InfoVis 2005
  7. "InfoVis 2006 Call for Participation". Archived from the original on 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2010-02-08. InfoVis 2006
  8. VAST 2009
  9. "Welcome to Infovis". Archived from the original on 2010-02-19. Retrieved 2010-02-08. InfoVis Conference
  10. SofVis Symposium
  11. "Global computing association names 57 fellows for outstanding contributions that propel technology today". Association for Computing Machinery. January 18, 2023. Retrieved 2023-01-18.